Imaging of abdominal complications of COVID-19 infection.

Damiano Caruso,Carlotta Rucci,Gisella Guido,Elsa Iannicelli,Tiziano Polidori,Elena Lucertini,Francesco Pucciarelli,Marta Zerunian,Benedetta Bracci,Andrea Laghi,Michela Polici

doi:10.1259/bjro.20200052

Damiano Caruso, Carlotta Rucci + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1259/bjro.20200052

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Journal: BJR open	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
Citations: 14	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Sapienza University of Rome

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory syndrome caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) first described in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in the last months of 2019 and then declared as a pandemic. Typical symptoms are represented by fever, cough, dyspnea and fatigue, but SARS-CoV-2 infection can also cause gastrointestinal symptoms (vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite) or be totally asymptomatic. As reported in literature, many patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had a secondary abdominal involvement (bowel, pancreas, gallbladder, spleen, liver, kidneys), confirmed by laboratory tests and also by radiological features. Usually the diagnosis of COVID-19 is suspected and then confirmed by real-time reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), after the examination of the lung bases of patients, admitted to the emergency department with abdominal symptoms and signs, who underwent abdominal-CT. The aim of this review is to describe the typical and atypical abdominal imaging findings in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection reported since now in literature.

Highlights

A novel type of Coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China, on December 2019
The associated disease is typically characterized by respiratory symptoms and it was called Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
The WHO declared pandemic on 11 March 2020.1 Real-time reverse-transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) applied on respiratory tract specimens represents the reference standard for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection.[2]

Summary

Introduction

A novel type of Coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China, on December 2019. The WHO declared pandemic on 11 March 2020.1 Real-time reverse-transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) applied on respiratory tract specimens represents the reference standard for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection.[2] Imaging plays an important role on the diagnostic process of the disease[3 ]: as shown by Ai T. and colleagues[4] and Caruso D. and colleagues,[5] chest CT has a sensitivity of 97%. Typical chest CT findings are bilateral posterior ground-glass opacities (GGOs) and thickening of interlobar and interlobular septa (crazy paving pattern).[6,7] The first clinical manifestations reported during the spreading were referred to the respiratory tract, with typical symptoms as cough, dyspnea and fever. During the pandemic, other organs seem to be involved in the disease due to systemic effects of the SARS-CoV-2

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